Sisters Cracking Up

Randi Kreger, co-author of the bestseller, Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder, joins Sisters Cracking Up to pull back the curtain on the wild, complex, and eternally frustrating experience of being in a relationship with someone with BPD.

And that relationship can be with anyone in your life: spouse, partner, parent, boss, or even your child.

What are the hallmarks of this personality disorder? And why do those on the receiving end always feel like they're losing their marbles?

Randi Kreger shares her personal experience with BPD and how it sparked a lifelong interest in the disorder. She has sold over a million books worldwide on BPD, enlightening and giving relief to those who didn't have the words to describe their traumatic experiences.

Hey, Sisters. Most of us know there's no time like the holidays to highlight all the good (and not-so-good) parts of being in a family.

Although Hallmark (and its minions) would like us to believe that all of our close family relationships are intact, this is indeed not the case.

Author Fern Schumer Chapman (Brothers, Sisters, Strangers: Sibling Estrangement and the Road to Reconciliation) is on Sisters Cracking Up talking about her amazing book and her own road to reconciliation and healing with her brother.

Family rifts are beyond painful for everyone involved and more common than you think. You are not alone if you have a sibling relationship that causes you strife, stress, and anxiety.

The good news is this book can help. The better news is you can listen to this episode right now to jumpstart managing and healing from your own estranged relationships.

Critically acclaimed Chicago-based writer Fern Schumer Chapman has written several award-winning books. She writes a blog on psychologytoday.com called "Brothers, Sisters, Strangers," and she co-hosts a podcast by the same name. Some of her blog posts are compiled in her most recent work, The Sibling Estrangement Journal: A Guided Exploration of Your Experience through Writing.

Abby and Julie also discuss their journey through and after their mom's passing (yes, they're still processing it). Also, Abby suggests a new name for their podcast which Julie wholly and immediately rejects.

Hey, Sisters. Got trauma? You, too? We've all had some. Question is, have you dealt with yours effectively? Or, have you tried different approaches and modalities to heal from trauma which either don't help or even make matters worse?

So many of us tell ourselves that our trauma doesn't "count" because there's always someone with a more tragic tale. This attitude does so much to increase our stress and impede our healing. It can prevent us from getting the help we need.

Dr. Elizabeth Stanley gets all of this and so much more. Her book, "Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma," was borne of attempting to heal from her own striking stress and trauma. She made it her professional mission to help others "widen the window" within which our thinking brain and survival brain work together cooperatively, enabling us to activate our resilience and best selves.

If you're interested in trauma, stress, and tips for recovery, you don't want to miss this episode.

Abby and Julie open the episode discussing Abby's unique tailoring idea for her new jumpsuit.

Elizabeth A. Stanley, Ph.D. is a professor of security studies with joint appointments in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government. Earlier in her career, she served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in South Korea, Germany, and on peacekeeping deployments to the Balkans, leaving service as a captain. She is the creator of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT), tested through four neuroscience research studies with the U.S. military.

Happy Mother's Day, Sisters! We hope it will be a joyful one for you and your families.

As we know well, our relationships with our moms can run the emotional gamut over the lifespan. We also know that some moms are made for mothering (or work really hard at it!), while some simply fall short because of circumstances they can't (or don't know how to) control.

In Liz Scheier's beautiful, honest memoir, Never Simple, she describes her difficult and complex relationship with her mother, Judith. As a result of Judith's borderline personality disorder (BPD), Liz's childhood was fraught with chaos and volatility.

When Liz was 18 years old, her mother dropped two bombshells. One, that her mom had been married for most of the previous two decades to a man Liz had never heard of. And second, that everything she had told Liz about the man she’d claimed was Liz's dead father was entirely fictional. Never Simple is Liz's story about what happened next.

We loved our illuminating and intimate conversation with Liz -- and you will, too.

Never Simple has garnered praise from the New York Times, Publishers Weekly (starred review), Kirkus, Library Journal, Bookpage, Booklist, and bestselling authors Augusten Burroughs, Jenny Lawson, Isaac Mizrahi, Elissa Altman, Greer Hendricks, and Mira Bartók. It was chosen as a Best Book of March by Amazon and Apple Books, a People Picks by People Magazine, an Indie Next pick, a Barnes & Noble Top 10 Favorite Ebook of 2022, and was featured as one of “15 March Reads to Get You Through the Month” on Good Morning America. It was a finalist for a Lambda Award.

Gary Janetti, comedy genius and royalty, joins us to talk about his new book, Start Without Me: I'll Be There in a Minute.

You already know and love Gary Janetti from his work on Family Guy, The Prince, and Will & Grace. Now, you'll get to know and love the person behind the laughs as he shares what and who inspires him -- and his thoughts on commencement speeches, tanning, and fame.

Sisters Cracking Up hosts Abby Rodman and Julie Howard talk with Gary about his comedy roots, inspirations, and the people most important to him. We even got him to read some selections from his new book.

Gary has nearly a million followers on Instagram for good reason -- and we grill him on that, too!

Gary Janetti is a four-time Emmy nominated writer and producer who is the showrunner and creator of HBOMax's The Prince. He got his start writing on several network series before joining Fox’s Family Guy where he was on the original writing staff and went on to pen many memorable episodes featuring Brian and Stewie. He then wrote on NBC’s Will & Grace, where he rose to executive producer and showrunner.

His popular Instagram account of over 900k followers has been featured and praised in such publications as the New York Times, People and Vanity Fair. Janetti’s first book, Do You Mind If I Cancel? became an instant New York Times bestseller. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, TV personality and fashion expert Brad Goreski.